Gary Murphy
Gary Murphy returns to action next week in the One Asia Tour and back to where he started out in 1997 after qualifying for the Asian Tour in the Philippines and playing the Region for two winters before winning his card at European Tour Qualifying School in 2000 on his fifth attempt.
Not deterred by falling short at the European Tour Q School last November in Spain Murphy qualified from the OneAsia Q School in January and will now play the season-opening event, worth US$1 million in prize money, which features a host of champions including Australian Kim Felton, New Zealand’s Michael Hendry as well as Chinese star Liang Wenchong.
The star-studded event, which also features other elite golfers from all over the region, will be played at the Imperial Klub Golf in Jakarta from March 24th -27th.
Liang, who enjoyed an outstanding season on OneAsia last year which included winning the Order of Merit, returns to the circuit with much enthusiasm about the Tour's growth. He will head a 20-strong Chinese contingent and sees the tournament in Indonesia as an exciting start for his compatriots.
"The development of Chinese golf needs good professional players, and OneAsia is the soil for this development," said Liang. "This tournament is one of more international events this year and this is a great leap forward. With this increase, there will be more opportunities to communicate and learn from international experts,” said Liang.
Liang will battle it out once again with Michael Hendry, who propelled his name into the spotlight with a seven-stroke victory ahead of Liang at the Indonesia Open presented by Enjoy Jakarta on OneAsia last year.
Hendry has led the New Zealand Tour's Order of Merit for the past two years, and finished third on the OneAsia Order of Merit after Liang and Kim.
Felton also jets to Jakarta this month to make a play for the tournament's purse. The freshly-married Felton, who took home the winner's check at last year's Midea China Classic, is looking forward to a fruitful season after having come back from a difficult period in which he spent much of his time away from competitive golf due to a drop in form
The Indonesia PGA Championship will be showcased on OneAsia's television platform with live coverage for four hours a day across all four tournament days, and broadcast to over 400 million homes in more than 40 countries.
Full coverage of OneAsia is available internationally on ESPN Star Sports, Jupiter Golf Network, SBS Golf Channel, Fox International, Network Ten, Sky Sports NZ, ESPN3 and America One in the USA, and ViaSat and Bloomberg Television among others in Europe.
